Abstract
With challenges from global climate change, it is imperative to enhance food production using climate-smart technologies and maximize farm efficiency. Fifty-six households in Rudhiapada and Badamahulidiha, Odisha, India were selected to evaluate farmers’ efficiency using conservation agriculture (CA) cropping system practices. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and regression analysis were used to estimate farmer efficiency and the determinants of yield. Conventional tillage with the local maize cultivar was compared to reduced tillage with improved maize cultivar and maize intercropped with cowpea. Badamahulidiha outperformed Rudhiapada in yields for all cropping systems. This could be attributed to lower input use and exposure to NGO training. The current efficiency level of farmers’ productivity was between 0.4 and 0.7. Inputs such as labor, seed, and fertilizers were found to be significant in increasing yield except for female labor and phosphate. This finding suggests conservation agriculture cropping system is female friendly. The conservation agriculture cropping systems improved maize yields by 60% to 70% when compared to conventional farming system. Combining conservation agriculture practices with improving efficiency of farmers in optimal use of the inputs can contribute substantially to productivity, thus enhancing food security and nutrition in the face of climate change in India and other tropical areas.
Highlights
Food security among the rural poor in India is tightly linked to poverty and production sustainability
The results suggest that the two selected farmers A and B from Badamahulidiha could increase their efficiencies, achieving the higher maize equivalent yield (MEY) indicated in the slack columns of 3258 kg/ha and 3664 kg/ha by decreasing their inputs, by different amounts on each farm
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Summary
Food security among the rural poor in India is tightly linked to poverty and production sustainability. Food security comprises the availability of food, but of its access by vulnerable populations in adequate quantity and quality It is a question of whether a farmer can increase food production to meet the needs of her/his family and can do so in a sustainable manner. It is imperative for a nation like India to develop a long-term strategy that will reduce the vulnerability of the farming community and sustainably intensify agricultural productivity while minimizing the degradation of land and natural resources. Poverty is especially prevalent among the scheduled tribes that live as smallholder farmers in the semi-arid uplands of the state, such as
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